Various attempts have been made over the years to provide useful and unique devices for monitoring the temperature of liquids while they are chilled in a cooling apparatus such as a refrigerator. One relatively simple device is a direct reading thermochromatic strip affixed to beverage cans, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,323, issued Jan. 9, 1996 to Hutchinson for a Thermochromatic Indicator for Beverage Containers. Such devices provide a direct temperature sensing feature from the container surface by adhesively affixing the sensing assembly to a beverage container, but they fail to provide any signal (much less a digital signal) for operating an alerting or alarming device which is located external to the cooling apparatus in which the beverage containers are being held. Another type of apparatus, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,741,099, issued Apr. 10, 1956, to Beane for an "Apparatus for Indicating and Controlling the Temperature of Products within Predetermined Limits" solves the problem provides a temperature indicator outside of the cooling device, but compromises the integrity of the seal of the beverage container, since it uses the technique of inserting the temperature sensing device directly into the controlled container of liquid being observed. Neither device solves the problem of providing a direct but non-invasive temperature sensing of a specific beverage container while simultaneously providing an alarm circuit to alert the user to the then estimated degree of chilling then achieved in the container. Such a problem arises in various situations. For instance when it is desired to quickly chill a hot can of beer, or to quickly chill a warm bottle of wine, it would be desirable to provide a reliable indication of the degree of chill actually received. Also, it would be desirable to also provide an alerting signal that the beverage has been adequately chilled, as well as a warning reminder when it becomes time to remove the container from the chilling device. Indeed, in the absence of such a device, beverages placed in chillers, refrigerators, or particularly in freezers, can be forgotten, occasionally with disastrous results, especially in the latter instance.
In any event, it is clear that a continuing need exists for a reliable device than can provide a user with a clear indication that a beverage being chilled has reached a desired low temperature. In short, a continuing demand exists for a simple and inexpensive device to enable a user to prevent the overcooling and thus the freezing of beverages during quick chill operations.
In general, even the currently available "quick chilling" compartments in residential refrigerators which are known to me, such as found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,358,932 issued Nov. 16, 1982 to Helfrich for a "Control System for Refrigerator with Through-the-Door Quick-Chilling Service" have limited capability, since they lack the feature of directly reading the temperature in the container being quickly chilled. More importantly, such a configuration is limited to specially built refrigerators, which adds considerably to their expense, and is adaptable to a portable device which is usable with existing residential refrigerator/freezer combinations. Due to such deficiency, there remains an ongoing need for a highly reliable, low cost device for providing feedback to a user when beverage containers are being quickly chilled. Moreover, there remains an ongoing and as yet unaddressed need for such a device which could be adjusted, reprogrammed, or recalibrated as desired in the event it is used for sensing different beverages, or different types of containers, or different sizes of containers. Finally, in some aspects it would be advantageous if the sensing device were adjustable via computer database file replacement, such as by downloading a controlling program including an appropriate algorithm or set-point parameters and key coefficients (including heat transfer coefficients) from a data bank as may be made available through a private service provider or via "world-wide-web" or "internet" connection capability. In such a manner, a particular device could be provided with a reprogrammable memory function, so that a single device could be used to sense the quick chilling status of a variety of beverages, in a variety of container types, and with a variety of sizes.